PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Sept 28: Tata Steel announced the winners of the 10th edition of its flagship annual business challenge, Steel-a-thon.
This competition, designed for premier B-Schools in India, offers students a unique opportunity to tackle real-life business challenges while receiving mentorship from Tata Steel’s senior leadership and management.
Team Steelers from IIM Kashipur emerged as Steel-a-thon Season X Champions (Overall Season winner). Team Steelers from IIM Kashipur emerged as the winners and Team Kyoto from IIM Raipur secured the runner-up position in Business Track.
Team Alloymora from XIM Bhubaneswar emerged as the winner and Team Wolverine from IIFT secured the Runner-up position in Value Chain Track. Team The Crows from IIM Ranchi emerged as the winner and Team Dream Steelers from XIM Bhubaneswar secured the runner-up position in People Track.
The Steel-a-thon programme, now in its 10th year, witnessed an overwhelming response with participation from over 12,000 students hailing from 28 renowned B-Schools across the nation.
This year, participating teams were presented with three distinct tracks, each centered around crucial business themes: “Xplore New Frontiers” for Growth Aspirations in the Business track, “Xcel For The Planet” for Sustainable Value Chain in Value Chain track, and “Xpand Your Horizons” for Employee Well-Being in People Management track.
Atrayee Sanyal, Vice President, Human Resource Management at Tata Steel, commented on the event: “Steel-a-thon has consistently demonstrated the remarkable talent and innovative thinking present in our nation’s B-Schools. We are genuinely delighted to witness the enthusiasm and fresh perspectives that these students bring to our real-world business challenges. Congratulations to all the winners!”
Peeyush Gupta, Vice President, Group Strategic Procurement & One Supply Chain, Tata Steel, added: “As we celebrate a decade of Steel-a-thon, we reflect on how this case competition has taken roots in the premier Institutes of the country and the students have engaged themselves in the evolving & relevant themes. We have been impressed by the quality of ideas and solutions developed to address the challenges that the companies face, year after year. This augurs well for the future managers as they prepare to explore the business landscape of the country and beyond.”
The competition commenced with 1615 teams submitting their executive summaries for the pre-finale. After rigorous evaluation, 82 teams progressed to the pre-finale round, and ultimately, only 16 teams secured their spot in the highly anticipated finale.
The finalists had the unique opportunity to present their innovative business case solutions to a distinguished jury, led by Peeyush Gupta, Vice President, Group Strategic Procurement & One Supply Chain, Tata Steel, Atrayee Sanyal, Vice President, Human Resource Management, Tata Steel, and S Karthik Narayanan, Chief Marketing & Sales (TISCON Retail), Tata Steel.
In this year’s competition, the winning teams for each track received Rs 2,50,000 in prize money, while the first runners-up were presented with cash prizes of Rs 1,50,000.
Both the winning teams and runners-up were also awarded Pre-Placement Offers (PPO) and certificates.
The Season X Champion winner received an additional Rs 1,00,000 in prize money.
Furthermore, select students from the National Finalists received Pre-Placement Interview (PPI) opportunities, opening doors to potential career opportunities with Tata Steel.
